The Community of the Risen Christ “GALILEA”

COMMUNITY

The Community of the Risen Christ “GALILEA” is a catholic, prayer and evangelization community that now has about 2400 members in different locations of Poland and Europe (Great Britain, Bulgaria, Austria, Ukraine, Netherlands). The aim of the Community is the new evangelization, which means giving people the hope springing from the personal meeting with the Risen Christ in the power of the Holy Spirit (kerygma).

The Community was born in 1992 in Stryszawa, a village near to Sucha Beskidzka (the Archdiocese of Kraków), where now its central office is located - Centrum Ewangelizacji i Modlitwy "Wzgórze Miłosierdzia". (“Hill of Mercy” - Evangelization and prayer centre) The community is growing thanks to the Holy Spirit who gives us the strength to be closer to Christ and to minister to others, to help them to resurrect.

In 1998, on the feast of Christ the King, 15th Chapter of the Polish province of Congregation of the Resurrection of Our Lord Jesus Christ acknowledged that the Community fulfills the charisma and the mission of the Congregation and decided to include the Community into its internal structure.

In 2012, father Krzysztof Czerwionka CR, the founder and the leader of the Community, was appointed as the member of the Team for Promoting the New Evangelization within the Polish Episcopal Conference.

The area of action of the Community is divided into regions, named Vineyards, which have their centres in particular parishes (the places of formation and evangelization). Now we have nine Vineyards (Stryszawa, Śląsk, Lublin, Bielsko-Biała, Chełm, Warsaw, Radom, Vienna, Kraków).

In our Community there are also Vines, i.e. groups that are remote from the Vineyards and they are subject directly to the Centre in Stryszawa and which, we hope, will become Vineyards in the future. Now we have four Vines: Gdańsk, Zamość, Bulgaria and Great Britain.

HOUSES OF RESURRECTION

The basic places of our meetings are Houses of Resurrection – small groups in the homes of our leaders, where 5-10 people meet to pray, read the Bible and to share their faith and everyday experiences. In all our Vineyards there are over 220 Houses of Resurrection.

The life of our community is based on the home meetings (once a week), five-step formation meetings (once a month) and Celebration meetings (once a month we meet in one of the parishes that is a centre of formation and evangelization in a given region).

The Holy Trinity and the first Christian community (Acts 2, 42-45) are our models in building the Galilea Community, thanks to them our relationships are warm and full of love.

God has called us to live life full of truth and love – it is a basic principle of our relationships and formation. We want to live according to the resurrection spirituality and to share the hope.

As we understand the huge need of the men evangelization and formation, in 2000 we started the men alliance “Bracia Zmartwychwstania” (Brothers of Resurrection).

ST. MARK SCHOOL OF NEW EWANGELISATION IN STRYSZAWA

Evangelization is our mission, so the development of the Galilea Community is tightly connected with the beginning of St. Andrew School of Evangelization in 1994 in the framework of our Community. Thanks to that we joined the catholic, kerygmatic stream of the schools of the new evangelization (SNE). Today, after several years, many people seeking conversion, reconciliation and healing participate in our evangelistic meetings.

Since 2006 we have been cooperating with the St. Andrew School of Evangelization (SASE) from Mexico (that is a founder of a worldwide stream of SNE) and working according to its methodology. We are responsible for National Bureau of SASE Poland that gathers over 30 schools of the new evangelization in Poland.

EVANGELISM

We are convinced that God calls us, the clergy together with the laity, to share our gifts through participating in various forms of new evangelization and through prayer. Each of us has a personal experience of meeting with Risen Christ which is both constant and dynamic experience in our life.

Individual evangelization: the personal engagement of the Galilea Community members in the evangelization through sharing their testimonies and Gospel in their environment, according to the rule: “I proclaim what I live out, I live out what I proclaim”, and praying for others.